GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 739 



being restricted to sheets of inland waters where it is protected 

 from molestation, and where it finds the seclusion necessary 

 for its nidification, one of which is Hornsea Mere in Holderness ; 

 in 1888 no fewer than six nests were observed there. 



It occasionally occurs in summer plumage on the river 

 Hull, near Beverley, though its numbers are decreasing in the 

 East Riding ; it was, in olden days, one of the inhabitants 

 of the famous Potteric Carr, near Doncaster, before the 

 levels of Hatfield were drained and reclaimed ; one or two pairs 

 usually breed on the lake at Castle Howard ; there are generally 

 two, and sometimes three, pairs on Hemsworth Dam ; whilst 

 Mr. Rosse Butterfield tells me he discovered nesting birds on 

 four different sheets of water in the Wakefield district. It has 

 nested on the lakes at Sandbeck Park, and Woodhouse ponds 

 near Kineton Park ; on Ryhill and Worsborough Reservoirs, 

 near Barnsley, and in one or two localities near Sheffield ; 

 I saw two pairs on the lakes at Harewood and Allerton Parks 

 in the spring of 1902, and it nests on a preserved lake in 

 Nidderdale. At the Swinsty and Fewston Reservoirs the 

 first example was noted in 1894 ; in 1902 two pairs nested, 

 but, unfortunately, one of the old birds was killed in the 

 early part of 1904, though there were still two pairs on the 

 water, and it is to be hoped that strict protection will in 

 future be afforded to the survivors. It is a casual visitor 

 to Malham Tarn, where a fine adult male was observed in 

 1890, and another on 7th June 1895, but there is no evidence 

 of its nesting there. 



In autumn the Hornsea birds leave the mere and retire 

 to the sea or the Humber ; at this period the species is more 

 generally distributed, and may be met with both on inland 

 waters and on the coast, its numbers being augmented by 

 immigrants from more northern latitudes. In very hard 

 winters, when its inland haunts are frozen up, it is more 

 frequently found on the tidal waters, and has been reported 

 from most of the coast stations, though usually considered 

 a rare bird. J. Hogg, writing in 1845, mentioned that it 

 frequented the Tees in severe weather in his day ; one was 

 captured there on 19th December 1876 ; and I have seen and 



